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Remembering your Customers

I've been hammering a lot of outdoor events lately...seeing a great deal of some customers of mine in plumbing, some from years ago.

Just two today, two different ones were people that both had a good experience with me, did the job to their satisfaction and then time wipes it almost away.

Here's what happened, both ways:

One pair of customers, I saw 3 times before I realized who they were...and both them and I were trying to figure out how we knew each other. ???

One lady tonight...I know I've done plumbing work for her but I have no clue where she lives, she's a super nice person and I just followed along with the conversation to be polite and not cause confusion.

Another couple, they didn't recognize me at all, done work for them twice and I know the difference between being ignored and not noticing.

Another was at a well known retail store and I figured them out before they did me....but we went on about our merry way.

In regards to ALL of these customers,

Here's what I don't remember about "them"

Their first AND last names

The name of their street

Their address number of their house

Now...Should I expect "them" to do the same for me? Is it realistic that since I've worked for them in such a sporatic way, and even though I had a good repor with them,

why should I expect someone to follow that back to me? Of course I better have a magnet on their fridge,

Follow-up letters

Some type of contact other than a random passing by like I experienced.

The reason I'm posting this is because I have had good experiences with many companies, many stores, many brands of tools, many types of foods and restaurants, many convenient stores, many gas stations, many products that sell many types of .....you guessed it, anything.

I appreciate, encourage the repeat customer, but why should I expect my plumbing customers to be dead on loyal to "always" use my company?

By no means I don't, and I respect that if they have opportunity with another company, or they just decided to call another, I'm not upset, nor am I suprised given the length of time of not seeing them, almost having trouble recognizing them.

Indeed, a stamp on a letter will keep you in their mind, but how do you decide if that money is going to someone you'll work for again.

Do you honestly believe you'll work for everyone more than once in your company?

I work for repeat customers every week, it's great, it's baseline for me. But it wouldn't hurt my feelings if they bought their groceries from 3 different grocery stores, knowing no one person is committed to one exact place to purchase and spend.

I have no hard feelings because this is how I am, unloyal most times to many services and products at my disposal.

I'm writing this because I find myself being completely satisfied with working for people "just once" and making the best out of that one time, make the money without feeling indebted working for the same person a great deal and somehow price reductions almost always become that friendship deal...and now you're working below profitability measure.

I'm ranting, I'm extremely tired tonight but I'm glad I treat people decent in all of my businesses because I'm very visible lately in the public front, and I like the opportunity to show my plumbing customers that I'm using other feathers in the cap.

Especially to the ones who called me in crisis mode.

Take what you want out of this posting, I know there's 1000's of dollars I generate from repeat business. It's a must have for business. I just think I'm fully aware that people can subconsciously choose another company or service without blinking at times, given the way we've been designed to function by selectivity.

And to add one more thing:

I'm not in the belief system that "just because you had a good experience" attitude always concretes the notion they'll call me back. I know for a fact that others, like me in this profession do just as good as work, completes the task and move on. If the customer has this ability to randomly choose plumbers, all of them doing satisfactory work, do you really blame them?

I hear what your're saying. But, YES, I do fully expect every customer I've ever done work for to use me EVERY time they need work done in the future. If they are not calling me first, I have dropped the ball somewhere along the line. I have either not created a significant disntinction between myself and the other guy at our initial meeting for the customer to make an easy decision. Or I have not kept my name in front of the customer, making me easy to remember. Either way, if I see another truck parked in their driveway, it is time for me to rethink if I've done everything in my power to retain that customer at a reasonable cost. Of course, we cannot remember all of our customers, especially those we only see once a year. However, we as consumers remember those in the service industry. I know who to call if I need a lawyer, my dentist, my family doctor, ceramic tile, carpenter, electrician, etc.

Comment

i can never remember names. they always remember mine. i see and talk to lots of people every day. but they only have one service person in there home that is me. so it is easy for them to remember me and hard for me to remember them.